Word Balloon: AZZARELLO And DC's FIRST WAVE

On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, writer Brian Azzarello stops by to explain the DC heroes/Pulp Heroes world he's created in the First Wave Project. As Azzarello says, "It's a world without superpowers or magic, and I'm playing god with it. I've been involved with this pulp thing for 5 years now. It took that long to get the rights squared away."

The series began this week, with the release of the Batman/Doc Savage One Shot, with art by Phil Noto, and continues in early 2010, with the 6 part limited series drawn by Rags Morales. After that series gets under way, Azzarello says, "There's going to be many other writers and artists working on stories that spring from the bible of the mini series. There will probably be some overlap in their release."

As for more hints about some of the characters in the upcoming mini series, Azzarello gave these comments.

"I think the pulp heroes reasons to fight crime are much darker than the superheroes were, with the exception of Doc Savage. Like The Avenger. He's a really dark character, and we're actually making him even darker...his power is disguise; his face has a lot of muscle control, he could mold his face to look like someone else."

The Blackhawks-"There will be women in the Blackhawks, but not Lady Blackhawk, "The majority of them will be women. In our Blackhawks, most of the guys you know are dead but a few will be around."

The Spirit- "For him to fit into this world, some of the more overt comedic elements will be gone, I also like the idea that he's fearless and takes a lot of risks, because he believes he died long ago. So he feels like he's living on borrowed time."

There will be some Batman villains in the story, but as Brian says, "Not in the way you'd recognize them. It won't be too obvious who are wearing the white and black hats in the story."